Music sales fell 5% last year despite Adele's 21 notching top selling album of 21st Century

Music sales fell another 5.6 per cent last year, continuing their dramatic slide in spite of Adele’s record 21 becoming the biggest selling album of the 21st Century.

A boom in digital downloads failed to offset crashing CD sales, figures released by the BPI show.

And a dominant year for singer Adele, whose 'spine-tingling' performance at The Brit Awards helped her break UK sales records, did little to soften the blow for a troubled industry.

Big time: Adele grabbed the title of biggest selling single of the 21st Century - but her success couldn't stop the music industry's slide into the abyss

It is yet more bad news for music shops, record labels and artists, who as an industry have failed to grapple with online piracy.

In November, major British record label EMI, which is home to artists such as Coldplay and the Beatles, said it was selling its recorded music arm to Universal Music. The other half of its business is expected to be bought by a Sony Music-led consortium.

On the High Street, record shop HMV is battling to stay afloat and said in December that it may sell its live music arm to raise funds. Other competitors, such as Zavvi, have already gone out of business.

There is still appetite for the most popular music, though. Simon Cowell's reality TV series X-Factor still reels in audiences of up to 13million, and music fans are happy to pay to purchase the work of artists like Adele.

Adele's album 21 sold 3.8million copies, outstripping Take That’s 2010 comeback album Progress to become the biggest hit since the turn of the millenium.

Move to internet gathers speed

Music fans are turning to the internet in their droves. Downloaded albums jumped a huge 26.6 per cent to 26.6million, while physical CDs declined 12.6 per cent in the year to 86.2milion. Vinyl sales grew to hold 0.3 per cent of the market share.

Top seller: Adele's 21 sold 3.8million copies in 2011

Overall 113.2million albums were bought in 2011 with CDs still the favoured format.

Adele also claimed two places in the 2011 year-end singles chart. The recorded and live performance of Someone Like You - recorded at The Brit Awards 2011 - together sold 1.2million copies to become the top-selling single of 2011 overall, with Rolling In The Deep also ending the year at number nine.

UK artists dominated the charts with five of the top 10 selling artist albums in 2011 coming from British acts.

BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth said: 'The spine-tingling performance by Adele at The Brit Awards 2011 fired the starting gun on her incredible and well-deserved year of success.

'Her achievements are phenomenal - the biggest-selling album this century, the best seller of 2011 by miles, her debut album also making the year-end top five, not to mention her fantastic success overseas.'

Records tumble in post-Christmas rush

More than 1million albums and 5.7million singles were downloaded in the last week of 2011 alone - the biggest week ever for digital sales of both formats as consumers redeemed music vouchers received as Christmas gifts.

The UK singles market saw sales records being broken for the fourth year in a row with singles sales increasing by 10 per cent to 177.9million in 2011.

The vast majority - 99.3 per cent - were sold as digital tracks and bundles. A total of 1.1million CD singles were sold in 2011, representing just 0.6 per cent of the total.

On the right track: Coldplay's single Paradise has become the first number one of 2012

All of the top 20 best-selling singles of 2011 sold more than 500,000 copies apiece.

Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive, said: 'It has been another record year for digital singles, but the most encouraging news of the year is the strong backing consumers are giving to the digital album format.

'British music fans understand that the album remains the richest way to connect with an artist's work.

'Digital developments grab the headlines, but the CD remains hugely popular with consumers, accounting for three-quarters of album sales.

'Physical ownership is important to many fans and the CD will be a key element of the market for years to come.'

Mr Taylor criticised the Government for failing to do enough to prevent illegal downloads.

He said: 'British artists continue to produce incredible music that resonates at home and around the world.

'But while other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our Government is taking too long to act on piracy, while weakening copyright to the benefit of U.S. tech giants.

'The UK has already fallen behind Germany as a music market.

'Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again - a creative crunch that will destroy jobs and mean the next Adele may not get her chance to shine on the world stage.'

The Christmas number one was by The Military Wives, formed by Gareth Malone for BBC2 programme The Choir, which sold 556,000 copies but which has now been knocked off the top slot by Coldplay whose single Paradise has become the first number one of 2012.

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Music sales fell 5% last year despite Adele's 21 notching top selling album in 21st Century